This template is mainly used in conjunction with {{Infobox historic site}}, which is of interest to WikiProject Historic sites. This template tells the infobox how to display designations by passing along either a color or some text, which are dependent on the designation. The template is set up, however, so that anyone can use it as a stand-alone template to create tables, lists, and other articles throughout Wikipedia. The following is an explanation of how to use this template as a stand-alone template:

Template syntax

{{Designation|<designation>|<identifier>}}

<designation> – tells the template which designation to use. (i.e. "NRHP", "World Heritage Site", "NYCL", etc.) This parameter is case-insensitive, so "world heritage site" will yield the same thing as "WoRlD HeRiTaGe SiTe". All supported designations are listed below.

<identifier> – can be either of the following values:

colour (or color) – will return a hex code for the official color of <designation>

text – will return a link to the article talking about <designation>

divbox - will generate a bordered div block element version, consisting of the link to the article talking about <designation> (this is useful in various templates that use the {{Infobox}}}

If you've created or contributed to a list-article or individual property articles of a designation or heritage register not listed above, you can suggest its addition to the template. To suggest a new designation for inclusion in this template, raise a question at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Historic sites.

In order for a register to be added to this template, there are several criteria that must be met:

The register must be an official designation consisting of a reasonable number of sites. If a designation covers only a small community and contains only a handful of sites, it's probably not necessary to add it to this template.

There must be an article about the register on Wikipedia, and there should be at least an external link to a list of all sites on the register. Ideally, there should be a list article on Wikipedia containing links to all articles about sites on that register.

The register's scope must be identified. What exactly can become listed on this register? Is it confined to a small area such as a city or municipality? Perhaps a state or province? Or maybe even an entire nation or many nations? A designation can be classified as "Global", meaning any site in any nation can qualify, "National/regional", meaning only sites in a particular nation or group of nations (i.e. the United Kingdom or North America) can qualify, "State/provincial", meaning only sites in a particular region of a country (i.e. a state in the United States or an emirate in the United Arab Emirates) may qualify, or "Local", meaning only sites in a specific city, neighborhood, or community may qualify.

Text and a color scheme must be chosen for the designation. This template allows an editor freedom over the background color of the designation's bar in {{Infobox historic site}} as well as the text color. The text of the bar will link to the main article of the register in some way, and should contain sufficient information to uniquely identify the register.

Valid callnames must be chosen for the designation. Callnames are valid values for the <designation> parameter described at the top of this page. Callnames are unique to an individual register, so if another similar designation contains callnames that may conflict with the new register, some reconciliation will be needed (i.e. if Switzerland maintains two national designations and one is already in this template using the callname "Switzerland", that callname must be taken out to remove ambiguity before the second designation is added).

Through discussion, determine a color scheme for the designation and which text will appear in the infobox bar. Also, determine callnames, identifying any ambiguities or overlap between designations. Once the text, the color, and the callname(s) have been discussed, the designation can be incorporated into this template. Below are a few guidelines on how to choose these identifiers.

While it's desirable for the colors to be related to the designation, accessibility is our first concern. Some users of Wikipedia may be fully or partially color blind, and certain color combinations can be hard for them to see. It may be necessary to modify the colors a little to accommodate these users; for more information see Wikipedia:Color.

In general, very light colors are preferred in order to have adequate contrast between the text and the background. The following colors are all acceptable choices:

#FFE978

#DACAA5

#CDE5B2

#BFFFBF

#B2E5CD

#A5CADA

#A8BDEC

#FFC0CB

The bordered div box versions (as used on {{Infobox historic site}}) do not have these accessibility issues, and thus use a different color palette.

In choosing callnames (valid <designation> values), choose names that are generally associated with the designation – not personal preferences (i.e. don't choose "My Hometown," "Family Vacation Spot," etc.). Be sure to include many different variations on word order (If you include "Canadian National Historic Site" then include "National Historic Site of Canada" as well). Callnames are case-insensitive, so there is no need for various capitalization changes.

You may use abbreviations, but use abbreviations that make sense. For Atlanta Landmarks, "AL" wouldn't be good because it may be confused with landmarks in Alabama; something like "ATL" would be better because more potential readers would associate that with Atlanta. For smaller cities it is wise to include country or state names too (such as "Oyster Bay, New York") because people are more likely to use state names than for larger, more well-known cities.

Care must also be taken to avoid overlap or ambiguity in choosing callnames. Common practice in this template's designations is to include the nation, state, or city's name as a potential callname for that designation. If a nation, state, or city maintains more than one historic register, though, things can get messy. When adding a new designation, check first to make sure that no other designations use the callnames you wish to attach to the new designation. If you were adding a new national designation for Switzerland, you would notice that the designation already in the template (Swiss Cultural Properties of National Significance) uses the callname "Switzerland". Since your new designation would also be a national designation of Switzerland, the "Switzerland" callname should be removed from the old designation, making sure to update any articles using that callname, before the new designation is added to the template.

Be sure to provide adequate information to uniquely identify the designation.

When selecting the text that will be shown in the infobox bar, be sure to provide enough information to uniquely identify the designation. Many registers in this template are very similar, and some may even overlap in scope (i.e. a single area may be covered by more than one register). Make sure when selecting the text that will display in the designation's bar that enough information is given to remove all ambiguity. If you were adding a register about the National monuments of Singapore, you couldn't simply choose "National Monument" for the text bar because almost every single country contains its own national monuments. Generally a good idea is to include the nation, region, or area covered by the register in the text. Instead of "State Landmark", the text should read "California Landmark" or something similar.

The list article to which the text will point can be helpful in identifying the register, though it should not be a primary identifier. A reader should be able to read the text of the bar and know immediately which register the infobox is talking about. Secondary information such as intricacies of scope, requirements of addition, and explanations of labels (Grade I, Category C, Type IV, etc.) should be explained in the list article but not the text bar. While adequate information is needed in the text bar, make sure not to be overly descriptive so as not to overwhelm the infobox. If the bar's text takes up more than two lines, you should probably think about shortening it.

After colors, text, and callnames have been chosen, the designation is ready to be added to the template. You should probably ask someone at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Historic sites to do this for you, but if you feel up to it, you can dive into template code independently. Before editing anything, you may want to check out Help:Template.

To incorporate the designation's color into the template, find the appropriate scope-level (Global, national/regional, state/provincial, or local) section of the "color" block of code. The section is alphabetized according to scope. Nation's names are in alphabetical order, followed by states or provinces, followed by cities. Find the appropriate location in alphabetic order for your new designation and insert a new line. On this line, list the callname(s) selected for the designation, separated by vertical pipes ("|"). Be sure to add the callname(s) in all caps to remove case sensitivity; if a callname is not entered in all caps, it will not work. General practice is to not allow the callnames to exceed a certain point on a line to preserve readability, so if a designation passes the column of existing equal signs, it should be moved to a new line. At the end of the last line of callnames, add an equal sign and then the HEX value of the color chosen. In order for the wikisoftware to parse the color correctly, "& #35;" (without the space it renders a "#" sign) must be added to the front of the HEX color. Once this is done, repeat the procedure for the alternate colour template.

After the colors are added, you can simply copy/paste that entire line of code including all callnames down into the "text" block of code at the bottom of the template. Be sure to maintain the alphabetical order of the section by pasting into the same location in the text block that you pasted into the color block. After pasting, delete the HEX color and replace it with the text for the infobox bar. This text, as discussed above, should contain a link to the register's main list article. To change the text color of a link, a <span> element is used (See existing designations for examples).

After the colors and text have been added to the template, you are ready to save. Before clicking save, double check to see that nothing else other than what you added was changed (you can use the "Show changes" option if necessary) and save the page with the edit summary "Added _______ designation," inserting the name of the designation you just added.

After the color/text are added to the main template, you can either ask someone at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Historic sites to update the "Supported designations" page or update it yourself. To add your designation to the page, you'll have to find the correct scope-based subpage. If you want to add a global designation, append "/Global" to the end of the article name (i.e. Template:Designation/Supported designations/Global); for national/regional designations, it's /National; for state/provincial designations, it's /State; and for local/municipal designations, it's /Local. Once you've navigated to the correct subpage, simply click the edit button and add a new table row in the correct alphabetical order based on descending order of scope (So if you were adding New York State Landmarks, and Alabama/Ohio were already there, you would add New York between the two. If there was a Hong Kong landmark, it would be even before Alabama because "China" starts with C and "United States" starts with U). The simplest method of creating a new row is to copy/paste a pre-existing row and edit that. For more information on Wikipedia Tables, see Help:Table.

Don't change anything in the first column except the designation call. Change the former designation callname to one of your designation's callnames in both the "color" and "text" locations. The next cell is the scope of the designation. Scopes are generally in Country – State/province – City/municipality, etc. form, so for the New York State example, you would not just type "New York"; you would type "United States – New York" and for Hong Kong, you would type "China – Hong Kong." The next column is the approximate count of sites having that designation. No sources are needed on this list since the count will more than likely appear on the main article for that designation, a requirement to be supported by this infobox. The final cell is a list of all callnames that can be used to call that designation. You can copy and paste the callnames from the main template, but be sure to separate them by semicolons instead of leaving the vertical pipes, and make sure not to leave them in all caps. After you have added the new row, save the page with the same edit summary used when you updated the main template.